How do automatic backups work?

In Settings → Backup, set Automatic backups to Every day or Every week. Dictate Safe then makes a backup by itself when one is due and your computer is not busy. You do not have to press anything.

#When it runs

• Once a day or once a week, counted from the last backup that worked. If the computer was asleep, or the app was closed, when one was due, it is made shortly after the app is running again.
• It does not start while you are dictating.
• It does not start on a laptop running on battery below 40%. Plugged in, the charge does not matter.

You can keep working while it runs. The Automatic backups row shows when the next one is due.

#A complete file, or small updates

With automatic backups on, a row called “Each automatic backup is” offers two choices.

• A complete file, the default: “A complete file with your whole history, so any one of them restores everything by itself. Each is as big as the history.”
• Small updates: “After the first complete file, a small one with only what is new. They are small, but restoring needs all of them together in the same folder.”

With small updates, a new complete file is started after twenty updates, and whenever an update could not safely follow the last file, for example after you choose a new folder.

#How many are kept

The Keep row decides how many backups stay in the folder: the last one, or the last 2, 3, 5 or 10. It starts at 3. With small updates, each one counted is a set: a complete file and the updates after it.

Dictate Safe removes an older backup only when all of these are true:

• A newer backup has been saved and checked.
• Dictate Safe made the file, and it is still the file it made. A file you put in the folder yourself, or replaced, is never touched.
• It is not the newest backup. That one is never removed.

If you switch to a different folder, the backups in the old folder are left alone.

#When the passphrase is needed

A locked backup made automatically needs its passphrase when nobody is there to type it. So choosing automatic backups for a locked backup keeps the passphrase on this computer, in the macOS Keychain or the Windows Credential Manager. It is never written into a file of ours and never leaves the computer, but anyone who can use your computer account could read it from there. If that worries you, leave automatic backups off and press Back up now yourself.

Turning automatic backups on later from the Backups card asks for the passphrase first, on a screen titled Keep your passphrase on this computer. It has to open your last backup. Pressing Stop keeping it next to Protection removes the kept passphrase and switches automatic backups off, because a locked backup cannot run without it. More in how the passphrase works.

#If a backup fails

The Automatic backups row says “The last backup did not work:” with the reason, and when it will try again. The first retry is after 15 minutes, and the wait grows each time, to two hours at most.

The backup folder could not be found. It may be on a drive that is not connected.

Automatic backups are locked with a passphrase that this computer was not asked to keep. Open Backup and choose to keep it, or make a backup yourself.

Dictate Safe no longer has your backup passphrase. Open Backup and enter it again to keep it.

Your computer would not let Dictate Safe use the passphrase it keeps. Open Backup and enter the passphrase again to keep it.